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"Ghost" Resorts: Signs Of Re-Birth?

By J.D. O'Connor
August 07, 2006

What was once old becomes new again when hopeful eyes scan the scarred, forgotten slopes and people say: "Why not?"

At least that's the case in Colorado where more than one long-forgotten ski area is being considered for restoration to its former glory by entrepreneurs unfazed by dire prospects of global warming, stratospheric insurance costs, and the whims of a fickle ski public.

Ski Broadmoor, Cutty's Alpine Lakes, Squaw Pass - most have faded into Colorado ski history. But ski historians say there are more than 100 of the "Ghost Resorts," whose glorious past lives are marked only by the piles of rusting grooming equipment and telltale trailcuts they left behind.

Squaw Pass, a mere 45 minutes from downtown Denver, reopened recently as Echo Mountain - a 30-acre terrain park purchased and brought back to life after its appearance on ColoradoSkiHistory.com - a local Web site which documents the forgotten ski areas.

Juan Mijares hopes to reopen Holiday Hills someday. He bought 42 acres in the Holiday Hills subdivision including most of the land of the old ski area eight years ago and although his family and friends enjoy skiing and sledding in virtual privacy, Mijares would like to "go public."

"One of my dreams is to somehow, someday put a lift back in there and open it up for kids in the area who want to ski for a couple hours a day," Mijares told an Associated Press reporter who found him in his Colorado Springs violin shop.

"I've got a snowmobile and in the winter I'll pull kids up and down the hill. They ski and sled for the day. We get church groups and scouts. I'd love to reopen it. Maybe this will renew interest in the place."

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